Tue Apr 15 20:34:29 2014

At 8 o'clock PM, Day of Freedom, 25th of the Month of the Ancient Darkness
on the Theran calendar Ishuntal perished, never to return.

Man I loved this character. You did an awesome job with the whole thing. I think the whole "I'm a spy for cabal X in cabal Y" role can very easily be turned cheesey, but you did it well. I wanted to give you a weakness or something that made it feasible for morts to maybe sniff you out if they were observant. I also wanted to make as much of this driven by you and other players as possible. We did our nudges up here now and then but for the most part we let you run with it, and let them try to sniff it out.

I think you did a great job of not being too infallible. I think the problem with a spy character is not just playing the spy part right, but trying to do a good job of leaving little clues. I mean, Ishuntal wasn't full on rager, he didn't drink that Kool-aid, so it's cool that you at times showed that. You did your part and played it up, but you also made a point of not being as rah-rah rager as the next guy..which helped raise suspicion.

I was also handling the Archmage for the Scion stuff. Sorry I didn't get a chance to get back in touch with you but you went and con-died. Anyway, hope you had fun. It was a fun character to roll along with.

Once again, thank you very much for all the help with this character. I forgot the Archmage in my goodbyes but I really appreciated that as well. It is no worry either, I didn't really expect that part to come to resolution. Yeah, it would have been cool to actually accomplish the goals he had but I wasn't expecting it.

In fact, I was pretty satisfied with all that was accomplished with the character and was actually ready to be finished with him. Actually, the one thing I was going to ask you about was getting access to full scion powers

As for the rager behavior thanks for the input. I was concerned if I was pulling it off. The one thing I really tried to avoid was killing those who weren't rager enemies just because he was truly a Scion at heart. The last thing I wanted was some log showing up on dio's about another rager douche breaking parity or something. That's why I wrote it in the role that he would purposely try to be a model Villager so as not to arouse suspicion.

Of course, if the Village had the scepter and I could defend it, I knew I had to but I'd take my time getting back to the Village and remember trying to drop hints to people like Socapex.

Anyhow, thanks again for all you did for this character!!

You were a good ally. I generally try to leave evil loners alone when darkness tips, and so I never really went after you. I have my 'own' take on the balance, so when evil tips and there is 1 scion and 4 imperials..I'm going after the imperials 1st.

That said, I always kind of worried that being too chummy with you would result in an alignment hit, so I always made sure the world was balanced before coordinating much with you.

I will miss you.

I never knew this character in the battle phase but it was nice to have you as an ally after you went Scion.

To be able to pull this off speaks volumes about you as a player and Ish as a character. I fought you both as a villager and a scion and both were a solid fight that was quite back and forth. Impressive and classy in every way. Well done.

gr

This could get long so bear with me. Obviously, I rolled Ishuntal with the plan of joining the Battleragers as a Scion spy. I really had no idea how it would go but figured it would be fun to see how far I could take it. If I failed miserably and got the found out right away, I was prepared to be ok with that.

I'm sure there are many others who could have done the spy thing much better than I but I played it the way I felt it needed to be done. I didn't want to push certain things so far that I would just be asking to get found out. Eventually I did have to take some out in the open risks, like the fake dream for those of you who were there, but it turned out to be quite fun. Everytime I logged in I expected something would happen and I would get the boot.

In fact that paranoia led to some pretty entertaining circumstances for me. For example, I was sitting in the guild in Hamsah and had just finished speaking to Halifan about our plans when Adili (empire thief) say to me something like "don't worry your secret is safe with me". I about #### my pants, thinking she had eavesdropped my conversation with Halifan. Turns out she thought I was stalking someone in Hamsah and said that to me.

Another time, there was an applicant assassin whose name slips me right now. He had alerted Serra to Unathelese's location and Serra announced it on the CB. I figured, what the hell, if Serra is announcing it, free game. So I went. When I got there the applicant wasn't very forth coming with the exact location. I assumed he knew I was a Villager, but, apparently he didn't. We had some banter about it and later on he says to me something like "I have found you out" or "I know your secret". Again, my heart raced, thinking he somehow found out I was a spy. Turns out he was just letting me know he now knew I was a Village, like I was trying to keep a low profile. There were many other times like this too. All in all, it was very exciting.

So, thanks to the imms and players who knew for letting me play this out. Whoever tipped Crraya off, I assume Arvam, thank you. I was ready to be outted and was considering letting Arvam know I wanted that to happen soon.

This was my second assassin. The first I played way back in 1999. I took my bumps from the learning curve that's for certain but don't think I did that bad. I rolled dark-elf for the RP angle, but, really wanted to do a halfie. Man, I didn't realize how ####ty drow assassin hps are. I had about 630 hp at hero and I got worked a few times because of it. For a melee class that's almost too low. You don't have the luxury of gearing for hp because your looking out for dam roll, str and dex, etc.

I planned on pumping lots of trains into hp but kept eating mob deaths early on. It took me a really long time to get a feel for how fragile he was.

I was really nervous about how things were going to go after I got the boot from battle. I expected to be a punching bag, but, I managed pretty well. In fact, I think most of the time I did better as a Scion than as a Villager. I know bloodthirst killed me more then it helped. I swear, I can get bloodthirsty when the character does! I know too that I went on CF-tilt a few times and ate some awfully stupid and embarrassing deaths both as a Villager and as a Scion.

It took me an awfully long time to get a buki edge, and when I could I took the endurance one. That was almost a necessity for drow. It really helped.

I can see why people level sit to assassinate people in that 35-40 range. Assassinating in hero range is hard as hell. People just move around so much and with raids and everything else going on it's hard to stay patient to assassinate. You feel like you are risking someone getting away when you could just join the fight. I definitely didn't think I level sat for too long. By the way, 4 out of my last 5 assassinates didn't give me a skill improve. It was at 82%. Is that normal?

Now for some goodbyes.

Imms:

Arvam: Thank you very much for supporting this character concept and all you did for him. All those talks were very helpful. Thank you for the tat! I hope I made a good follower. As I mentioned above, I assume it was you that gave the push to get me out of the Village and inducted into Scion. So, thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Battle imms: I don't know what your opinion of this role was but thanks for not blowing it up in your Village!

Crraya: So was it really a dream that put you on me? Awesome. That was a fun day when you gave me the boot. I was pretty pumped about it. We had some great fights after that. You are tough as hell and even though neither of us killed the other I always felt like you had the edge. Well done.

Hexugar: Yeah, you had me figured out eventually. Well done with that. A great character and build. Can't wait to see more when you're done.

Heras: We had fun while we were on the same side! That was an awful night in Thar-Acacia!

Halifan: You were awesome! Thanks for helping with the secrets and spying. I was really relieved at how interested you were in helping me go forward with this.

Zhenyen: Thank you very much for keeping the secret after you made the switch to Scarab. I also enjoyed that long talk we had later as a Scion. You're pretty knowledgeable and I wish we could have spoke more. The RP was excellent in my opinion.

Eudessa: Good luck with the undead thing. I hope you achieve it. I was glad I could help you out with a few things, especially since I've never played a necro. You seemed to be doing really well so good luck going forward.

Ormee: It's really too bad we didn't get to talk more about that man. I actually made it to him once by myself but died pretty quickly once there. It was great to finally run into you as an ally instead as an enemy.

Dehcu: You seem to know your stuff. I think you'll do very well and see big things for this guy. Keep it up. Glad I got to induct one person.

Oloice: Chief! From enemy to ally it's way better to be your ally. We did some damage together! I enjoyed it when you were logged in tremendously. Looks like you're locked in for chief too now with Ogrot gone for as long as you want it or are alive. Thumbs up.

Zeke: I owe you a huge thanks for all the help right after I got the boot from battle. You're assistance getting the head helped me get the induct into Scion and I couldn't have done it alone. You've a great character. Thanks again!

Guargox: That shark is nasty. Thanks for not eating me tonight while I was rigid from eating a fillet while the imperials were raiding. Also a very good character.

Turmi: I think you expected me to still hunt you but I didn't. I found most of you nexans to be better as allies then enemies. We had some enjoyable talks RP-wise.

Corlyx: You were huge for Ishuntal! Thanks for playing along! I can't say how much I appreciated Corlyx and think you have a spectacular character. Thanks for the ST help too! I was hoping to go back there one more time with you but it wasn't meant to be.

Vree: A respectable enemy. You really threw a wrench in my plans a few times. I'm shocked you didn't one shot me with a backstab. Nasty when you caught me unprepared.

Foedett: Also a respectable enemy. You're very competent and I hated being on the wrong side of your traps. Keep it up!

Niji: I thought Niji was cool. It was fun that you were a part of things when things came to head with the village.

Ooglarr: You're getting pretty damn tough. We've had some great back and forths. You were always respectable.

Jarlduz: Same with you. A tough character and always respectable and good sportsmanship from the player.

Qintaris: I'm very curious to know what happened with your council and that title. Nonetheless, the few times we talked you proved a great RPer and also a tough enemy.

Maligor: You were really tough to fight. I preferred to try and assassinate you as you could tell! Well done!

Worogha: Also you and I had some great fights. Back and forth. Well done with the character. Very respectful. As a Villager, I didn't want to stalk you for fear of doing anything to step out of line but you always struck at me. I couldn't wait for the day to go after you and it did finally come!

Quarissa: That lancehead is the ####. Nasty as hell. It was fun in the early days fighting you and thanks for not gaunting me when I got out of battle.

It feels like I had 10 more things to say and a few more people I'm missing, but, this is getting long. So if I missed you, I apologize.

You made a great enemy... definitely more fun with you in Scion than when you were in Battle.

As far as outing you is concerned, it was 99%Hex. From the get-go he suspected you. We strung you along pretending to gather info, but mainly testing you to see if you really were a spy or not.

As far as my "dream" was concerned, no, I never had one. I figured that it would make a good interaction if I played it out that I had a dream outing you. But I never did. Just wanted to see how you'd react to it.

Anyways, great char. Fun twist. Hope you enjoyed it.

The original plan was to get other Villagers to ask the Battle imms about the history of the head without implicating myself. It was a tough thing to do.

Halifan actually laid groundwork that the Heralds were supposed to tell you of, so I wouldn't even have been mentioned. However, that didn't work because apparently the Heralds didn't want to tell anyone about the Chancellors plans. So I acted with the dream. I knew it was risky, but, it ended up being fun.

For some reason people hate me, but I really don't try to lower the funstick for anyone.

And for the record, I'm not in that group! I've like Crraya across multiple chars. thanks for playing along.

I just thought that you *wouldn't*... because you really didn't hate magic.

Or that you really did have a dream.

I had spellbane taken away from me soon after getting inducted into battle. So I couldn't even if I wanted to. Made it challenging fighting mages for sure.

I also loved this char, both from the Imm side and as a mort.
After some thought about the role I decided to let this play out all the way, looking to shake some things up in the village. There were about 3 or 4 imms involved in all the chicanery. You'll see if you get your pbf there were folks who were suspicious, but rather than just 'out' you we let things continue to evolve, giving people hints and waiting to see where it went.
All in all solid, you rolled well without the spellbane and were still pretty damn deathfull over all (Rager assassins just tend to be).

Of course now I have to pick another RC winner! Bastid!

Damn! I never win RCs! Thanks for the feedback and letting me play through this idea. I've been wondering the take on this role from you all above. Yeah, I did get the pbf and am curious to see what nuggets it holds.

I knew Hexugar was suspicious but I wasn't certain if he just figured it out or if he had been given a hint. And because of the way things happened with Crraya, timing wise and how she confronted me about spellbane (as it seemed out of the blue), I thought for certain she was given help. It seems that wasn't the case per her comments above, which I am fine with. I enjoyed the way it played out and had lots of fun with it. It was fun to play a role that involved others. I just hope those others had fun with it and you all enjoyed the show.

A few things stuck out in my mind about you

1) What an assassinate you pulled on me. I saw you visible, counted the ticks and you still got me! I figured you only had 3-5 stalks at the maximum and guessed it wouldn't be enough. Boy was I wrong.

2) Punching bag - When you were in your transition period from battle to scion, I did really well against you and got that 1 kill I think, but even then it was more a combo of RNG giving me a wink and you a fist shake.

3) Beast mode - I realized it when you raided the Fortress with the Cardinal and I defending and you just tore through us. I thought maybe I was being abnormally stupid/bad tactically, but as I fought you a few more times and saw you fight, I realize you really had the trance/strike game down and it made you suuuuuper lethal.


Good job on a great character that got to play on both sides of a coin.

Thanks! I think I had 8 or 9 stalks on that assassinate. I probably have the whole log if you'd like to see it from my perspective. I think you were in Veran for the bulk of the stalks but I began before that.

One things I was never certain about with stalking was, if you lose your target for a time, did your stalks steadily decrease or did you just have x number of hours, based on how many stalks you had accrued where the more stalks gives you more time, to find your target again. I'd be interested in hearing from the imms if they cared to share on this.

It was always interesting not knowing if you were in the shadows or not, knowing that we once were 100% enemies, then going to the point that we'd help one another from time to time felt strange yet added a bit of zest to the playing dynamic. It's an interesting role twist for you to do, one that is rarely replicated and I'd like to say well done on this incarnation.